RFID Disc DVD
CD
According to a
news article from RFID Journal, many companies that rent videos,
DVDs and computer games struggle to track their inventory. Movies
are often picked up by customers and put back in the wrong place,
and thieves find ways to spirit coveted titles out of stores. TVL, a
software application development company that focuses on asset
tracking, has integrated
RFID Disc DVD
CD technology from Matrics, a Columbia, MD based systems provider, with
its own Rapid Rental software to help solve both problems. The
system, which TVL demonstrated at an industry trade show held in
Las
Vegas last week of Aug, 2003, RFID Disc DVD
CD is comprised of the Rapid Rental software, RFID tags on the items
to be tracked, and RFID readers situated in the store shelves, above
the return bins and at the exits.
Two-inch by
two-inch Matrics tags, which operate at 915 MHz and are based on the
Auto-ID Center's proposed Class 0
Electronic Product Code specification, are inserted under the
factory label on the disc or videocassette. The unique serial number
on the tag is associated with the rental title in the Rapid Rental
software.
The RFID Disc
DVD CD system keeps track of each title's position on the shelf. If
someone picks up the item and continues shopping, its status is
changed to "roaming." When the person checks out, the system is
updated so that when the customer passes the exit reader, no alarm
sounds. When the title is tossed into the return bin, a reader scans
the tag, and the item is automatically checked back into inventory
so it can be rented again immediately. So what a great ease in RFID
Disc DVD CD.
"This solution
for RFID Disc DVD CD is designed specifically for this industry,"
says TVL president Todd Edmondson. "Right out of the box, a rental
chain can begin getting value from it."
John Shoemaker,
VP of corporate business development at Matrics, says the tags cost
about 50 cents each, and the smart shelf technology, which can be
added to a company's existing shelves, costs about $30 or $40 for
each three-foot section. Prices for RFID Disc DVD CD will come down
as volumes go up. But in the short term, deploying the RFID Disc DVD
CD system in a large video rental store would be an expensive
proposition.
Still, the
system could pay for itself over time. RFID Disc DVD CD rental
companies will save labor costs associated with taking inventory,
and the system could reduce losses due to theft. But the biggest
benefit may be increased revenue. Rental companies derive 70 percent
of their revenue from new releases rented on Friday and Saturday
night, so knowing where all the copies of hot movies are in real
time should increase turns.
"We're bringing
visibility to the video management industry," says Shoemaker. "With
this system, store owners will know what they have and what
customers want to rent and don't want to rent. That's very powerful.
It could make or break stores operating on thin margins."
TVL says its
Rapid Rental point of sale and rental management system is used by
more than 6,000 video and DVD stores in the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom. The target market for the
new system is chains that manage several million dollars worth of
inventory.
Edmondson says
the system will become more attractive if the studios agree to put
the tags on the RFID Disc DVD CD. That's not out of the question.
Since the studios typically get a cut of each rental, the tags would
provide a way for them to better track how often movies are rented.
And they could probably pass some of the costs along to the chains
in the form of higher prices for each DVD or videocassette.
A Canadian
chain that did not want to be identified has expressed interest in
the system. TVL and Matrics will run a pilot with the company. An
entire store will be outfitted with smart shelves to determine the
business benefits of deploying the system.
